A World Health Organisation (WHO) report which links rising childhood obesity with soft drinks consumption among children has been slammed as “nonsense” by the chief executive of the Australasian Soft Drink Association.
“There is no evidence of a cause-and-effect situation between the consumption of any one food or drink and obesity,” said Tony Gentile, chief executive of the Australasian Soft Drink Association.
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The WHO report contends that there is a link between childhood obesity, one of the most serious health problems in developed countries, and the rising consumption of sweetened soft drinks. The draft report urges governments to clamp down on TV advertising of “sugar-rich items” to children and calls for high taxes on sweetened soft drinks to be considered. It also says soft drinks vending machines should be banned from schools.
At seminars on obesity in Victoria and New South Wales, calls were made for tough legislation on soft drinks producers in Australia. But Tony Gentile said a range of factors lay behind the rising rates of childhood obesity such as cheap food, a lack of exercise, a reluctance by parents to let children play and a lack of education for both children and adults about food and nutrition.
“A lot of these reports are written by people who look for easy solutions and the soft drink industry is an easy target,” Gentile said. “It’s a very complex problem that requires reasoned and complex programmes – and proper health programmes are the way to go, rather than arbitrary rules.”
Gentile added that per capita soft drink consumption had been stable in the past five years, while the real explosion had been in bottled water sales. In 2001, Australians spent A$1.4 billion on 2.25 billion litres of carbonated soft drinks.
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